Unfortunately, I don't know how much he really knows technically. It
would be very hard to justify his inclusion on the technical committee
on the basis of his deep knowledge of Lisp and Lisp implementation
issues, based on what I know. I could be wrong.
Well, we don't necessarily have to apply exactly the same standards to
foreign members that we did to American members. But I share your lack
of knowledge about Ida's technical abilities, and his English is
certainly not good enough for him to help write the manual or choose the
wording. Then again, he may be the guy who ends up translating the
thing into Japanese.
Here's a random idea: perhaps he really belongs on the steering
committee, and he could help us figure out who in Japan makes sense for
the technical committee?
I thought about proposing that myself. He seems to enjoy hacking
bureaucracy. So far, two of the addresses I've tried for mail to Ida
have bounced, and the third has not yet produced a reply.
-- Scott